Shock Therapy: A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Illness, by Edward Shorter and David Healy, tracks the rise, fall and current return to grace of ECT. Though the authors claim it is a "careful ... fair and comprehensive investigation of ECT," it is hardly evenhanded. Rather, it is a polemic reproaching forces that the authors claim stood in the path of ECT during its dark days of reduced use, and a vindication of its stalwart supporters.

Here is another short mentioning of the book and some additional content on the relationship between depression and neurogenesis on The Frontal Cortex

2 comments:

Jan Martens
said...

I ordered the book at Amazon in the US and received the book two months ago. During Christmas I was finally able to read the book. Shorter knows how to write and gives a lot of information. But I agree with the review on globeandmail.com. I am not always convinced by the arguments put forward. The chapter about new therapies such as TMS and VNS was especially interesting for me, since I am going to write my master thesis about this. Luckily this is a relatively short chapter, so hopefully I will be able to digg up more interesting material.

About Me

Dr Shock is a pseudonym for a psychiatrist working in a University Hospital. His main topics of interest are the treatment of depression and electro convulsive therapy. Other subjects for this personal blog are research, article reviews, book reviews and education. He loves computers and Internet.